TEHRAN —Iranian officials on Tuesday blamed the United States for a last-minute decision by the United Nations to bar Tehran’s participation in a peace conference on Syria, and denied that Iran had agreed to preconditions for attending the talks. “The U.S. put pressure on [U.N. Secretary General] Ban Ki-moon, and he was forced to cancel this invitation, which shows this international body is still under the influence of big powers, headed by the U.S.,” said Allaedin Boroujerdi, head of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of Iran’s parliament.
Ban’s last-minute decision to invite Iran, the primary military backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and a key Middle East power broker, infuriated the Syrian opposition and was strongly opposed by U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who personally lobbied the U.N. chief to change his mind. After Ban revoked the invitation on Monday, the main Syrian opposition bloc announced that it would join the long-delayed talks, which are set to begin Wednesday. The United States opposed Iranian participation unless Tehran endorsed ground rules set in 2012, which state that the goal of the peace talks is a transitional government in Syria, established by the mutual consent of the Assad government and political opponents. Ban’s spokesman said the U.N. chief was “deeply disappointed” by statements — made by Iranian officials after the invitation was issued — that Iran would not adhere to that framework. "Given that it has chosen to remain outside that basic understanding, [Ban] has decided that the one-day Montreux gathering will proceed without Iran's participation," Ban spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/iran-blames-us-for-blocking-it-from-syria-peace-talks-in-geneva/2014/01/21/53814508-8276-11e3-a273-6ffd9cf9f4ba_story.html
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